


A Plan So Cunning

by NeverwinterThistle



Category: Kraken - China Mieville
Genre: Extra Treat, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 03:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17779526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverwinterThistle/pseuds/NeverwinterThistle
Summary: “It’s going to work,” Billy said. “I swear, it is.”





	A Plan So Cunning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [freudiancascade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freudiancascade/gifts).



“It’s going to work,” Billy said. “I swear, it is.”

“It _ain’t_ ,” Dane repeated. “Fuck’s sake, Billy. What, you think because it got done in an episode, of, of Star something-”

“Firefly,” Billy muttered. “It was Firefly, they pretended to be married as a cover- look, I’m just _saying_. It makes sense.”

“The hell it does. It’s going to get us both recognised and killed.”

Billy scowled, would not be intimidated by Dane’s squared shoulders and dismissive disbelief. The idea was a sound one. Had Dane come up with it, he didn’t think they’d be having this conversation. They’d be inside the building already.

“You said yourself, they don’t pay much attention to news.” He was reasonable, convincing. He was painfully aware that they were hissing their argument in an alleyway behind a club and a bunch of silent, shut-up stores, exposed to the elements and any spies that might be around. They could not afford this wasted time. “Mapmaturges. Archivists, cartographers. Like bankers, you said. Collectors. They won’t know you’re cast out from the church, they won’t know I’m your prophet or whatever. We go in, get them to give your map back, and leave.”

“And you think,” Dane said, “That they’ll just buy it. ‘Morgan, Bryant, how’s things. Good? Yeah, all fine, still doing my bit for God Kraken. This is Billy, we met on one of them dating app things, he’s a bit normal to be honest. Thought I’d give him the tour. Show him real London, for a laugh. By the way, remember that thing I gave you, for safekeeping? Mind if I take that back?’. Is that how you picture it?”

“You could be a little less condescending, but yes. That’s…basically it. Dane, it’s a good idea. It’ll work.”

“Because you saw it on one of your geek shows.”

“You’re still being condescending,” Billy pointed out. “Look. I get it; you know this territory better, you know these people better, and all I know is what you tell me. So tell me. Give me one good, solid reason why it won’t work.”

He watched the conflict on Dane’s face with far too much smug vindication; not so much out of confidence that his idea would indeed work (but why not? Had he not seen stranger in his brief time _between_ and _inside_ the truth of his city? He did not know all the rules yet, but the things he had seen suggested to him that a ridiculous, implausible charade was almost guaranteed success, if only because it was so utterly mad that it could only be truth). But he enjoyed watching Dane be the one to grapple with new perspectives for once. He enjoyed watching his uncompromising partner try to see things from Billy’s point of view. It clearly wasn’t comfortable. And yet, he did it anyway.

“Krak’s sake,” Dane said at last, and Billy knew that he had won. “It’s not…fuck. Alright. It’s just stupid enough that they might actually fall for it, maybe. But we’d have to really sell it. And I’m no actor.”

“Neither am I,” Billy said. “If Leon was here, he’d know what- never mind. Look, let’s just go in together, same as ever. You meet your contacts, talk to your mates, and I’ll keep an eye out for anyone looking at us funny. Hold my hand a bit, and then we leave.”

“Hold your hand a bit,” Dane echoed, and Billy spotted the twitch of his lips. He thought the whole situation was stupid, that much was clear. He was trying not to give over to laughter. And yet, he could not help himself. “What, only a bit?”

“I might get lost in there. Better make sure I don’t wander off.”

“A leash would work better.”

“We are _not_ that kind of couple.”

“Yeah,” Dane said. “Maybe not. I’m more of a handcuffs kind of bloke, anyway.”

They were silent; they stared at each other, faces oddly lit with the dim light that seeped from cracks in the door they stood beside. Dane’s face was streaked in it, bleary and hypnotic. They said nothing, until Billy gave in; Dane was only a second behind him. They stood ill-lit by club neon, leaned on each other and snickered in the shadows, and it was not all fear, or horror.

 _A map,_ Billy thought, letting his weight press against the unyielding musculature of Dane’s upper arm. Feeling Dane’s heat seep through their sleeves. _For sale: safehouse map, hardly knacked. We need it. Teuthex can’t have it. Church of Kraken can’t have it. Fucking Goss and Subby definitely can’t have it, or that’s the last of our flimsy safety gone. It hides us. And apparently the safest place Dane could think of to hide_ it _is in the collection of a bunch of…map wizards._

“Alright,” Dane said. He pulled himself together while Billy was still giggling, but he was patient about it. He waited for the hilarity to subside. “Yeah, we can make this work. And they’re not…real interested in people, anyway. It’s a bit of a mission getting to them in the first place; you’ll see. They like puzzles. Maps in the floor, got to read clues and find the right latitude/longitude to stand on, that sort. You’ll probably work it out faster than me. I only done it once or twice. Didn’t have a reason to go back after I gave them the thing.”

He stood taller now the plan was settled. Unasked, he draped an arm around Billy’s shoulders. It was clearly not something he had done much before. Billy did not plan to tell him just how comforting it was.

“Okay,” he said. “But I’m your new, creepily normal boyfriend, and you’re showing off some of London’s tamer wonders in the hopes that I won’t run screaming when I finally see your squid crusader self. That’s actually a very good idea; how did you ever come up with something so clever?”

“Are we going inside?” Dane asked, patient. “Or d’you just want to stand out here all night patting yourself on the back?”

“Will you please just let me have this. _Darling_.”

“Mate,” Dane said, and actually rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” Billy said. “I’m done basking in my own brilliance, let’s do this. And for fuck’s sake don’t half-arse it if you have to kiss me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Dane promised, and led them deeper into the shadows.


End file.
